An Enjoyable Project, Through the Years
Author: Dawn Anderson
Janice Beck, long-time gardener for wildlife. A ruby - throated hummingbird darts about sipping nectar from the coral honeysuckle that climbs a tree in Janice Beck’s backyard. Meanwhile a female bluebird clucks softly from a branch near her next box.
Having lived in Charlotte’s Sherwood Forest neighborhood for nearly 50 years, Mrs. Beck has enjoyed watching her wildlife habitat evolve from a mixture of native hardwoods, wildflowers and other family heirloom plants. A yellow rose winds around a front-yard tree and a half-dozen iris shoot skyward. “A lot of these plants came from my mother and aunts,” she says.
“It’s been an enjoyable project that has continued through the years,” she adds, “I think providing cover for wildlife has been the most important thing.”
Mrs. Beck bubbles as she tells about a time that a large magnolia in her back yard coughed up a family of barred owls. “The mother pushed the babies out, and they were hopping around in the grass, looking like little old ladies with woolly caps and jumping up in the bird bath,” she continues.
Back in 1988, Mrs. Beck sent away for an application to certify her backyard as an official wildlife habitat with the National Wildlife Federation, but it was her son, Rick, who completed the paperwork for what is now a simple on-line process.
Beck explains that her late son found a welcome respite documenting the nature in the urban yard as he recovered from massive radiation he received to treat Hodgkin’s disease. “He would sit on the patio in the shade of a dogwood counting the birds that visited,” she tells.
Dogwoods bloom and hover over azaleas, perennials, and ferns in a large section of natural area in her front yard. The backyard hosts a large patio and small lawn area flanked by a quarter-acre of mixed oak, maple, and hickory, with a few sweetgum trees.
This past winter she enjoyed seeing eight deer that appeared just before a snow and ice storm. “I put out a bag of corn for them,” she says, adding that the deer have also come to nibble on her roses, but she doesn’t seem to mind sharing.
Besides regular seed feeders, Beck puts out mealworms for the bluebirds who visit her deck above the backyard. Misters on two bird baths provide additional spots to cool-off , and the moisture has also fostered a lush moss-filled lawn in front and a vibrant violet lawn in back.
Beck says that she once tried to till and replant the back lawn with turf grass, but it just didn’t flourish. “I learned to let it be what it’s going to be,” she says of her wildlife gardening. “You have to leave some of the weeds and junk for the animals. It can’t be ALL pretty- pretty.”
Still, Beck’s yard is gorgeous with spring blooms and provides a peaceful oasis in an urban neighborhood for humans and wildlife alike.
“This is my Church of One,” she explains. “Sometimes if I don’t feel like going to church, I can come out on my deck and just watch nature. What could be better than enjoying God’s handiwork?”
To date, Beck’s long-time backyard habitat is joined by more than 900 others in Charlotte, certified by the National Wildlife Federation, and qualifying the city to be recognized as a “Community Wildlife Habitat”.
Having lived in Charlotte’s Sherwood Forest neighborhood for nearly 50 years, Mrs. Beck has enjoyed watching her wildlife habitat evolve from a mixture of native hardwoods, wildflowers and other family heirloom plants. A yellow rose winds around a front-yard tree and a half-dozen iris shoot skyward. “A lot of these plants came from my mother and aunts,” she says.
“It’s been an enjoyable project that has continued through the years,” she adds, “I think providing cover for wildlife has been the most important thing.”
Mrs. Beck bubbles as she tells about a time that a large magnolia in her back yard coughed up a family of barred owls. “The mother pushed the babies out, and they were hopping around in the grass, looking like little old ladies with woolly caps and jumping up in the bird bath,” she continues.
Back in 1988, Mrs. Beck sent away for an application to certify her backyard as an official wildlife habitat with the National Wildlife Federation, but it was her son, Rick, who completed the paperwork for what is now a simple on-line process.
Beck explains that her late son found a welcome respite documenting the nature in the urban yard as he recovered from massive radiation he received to treat Hodgkin’s disease. “He would sit on the patio in the shade of a dogwood counting the birds that visited,” she tells.
Dogwoods bloom and hover over azaleas, perennials, and ferns in a large section of natural area in her front yard. The backyard hosts a large patio and small lawn area flanked by a quarter-acre of mixed oak, maple, and hickory, with a few sweetgum trees.
This past winter she enjoyed seeing eight deer that appeared just before a snow and ice storm. “I put out a bag of corn for them,” she says, adding that the deer have also come to nibble on her roses, but she doesn’t seem to mind sharing.
Besides regular seed feeders, Beck puts out mealworms for the bluebirds who visit her deck above the backyard. Misters on two bird baths provide additional spots to cool-off , and the moisture has also fostered a lush moss-filled lawn in front and a vibrant violet lawn in back.
Beck says that she once tried to till and replant the back lawn with turf grass, but it just didn’t flourish. “I learned to let it be what it’s going to be,” she says of her wildlife gardening. “You have to leave some of the weeds and junk for the animals. It can’t be ALL pretty- pretty.”
Still, Beck’s yard is gorgeous with spring blooms and provides a peaceful oasis in an urban neighborhood for humans and wildlife alike.
“This is my Church of One,” she explains. “Sometimes if I don’t feel like going to church, I can come out on my deck and just watch nature. What could be better than enjoying God’s handiwork?”
To date, Beck’s long-time backyard habitat is joined by more than 900 others in Charlotte, certified by the National Wildlife Federation, and qualifying the city to be recognized as a “Community Wildlife Habitat”.
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